Who: Omar El Akkad

Where to Find Him: on Amazon, his Twitter, and his website

Claim to Fame: Omar is the author of American War, a fictional novel, and was a staff reporter for The Globe and Mail for ten years where he covered the Arab Spring, military trials, and the War in Afghanistan

Let’s start with the basics: What time of day do you start writing? Is it easier for you to write early in the morning? Late at night?

I used to write almost exclusively between the hours of midnight and five in the morning. This was back when I had a day job and no children. Now, the opposite is true – I quit my day job and my wife and I had our first child, so these days I write in the early morning to early afternoon, while my wife and daughter are out of the house. I still do most of my editing late at night, though.

What’s your preferred tool for writing—a word processor like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, etc.? A pen and paper?

All my projects tend to consist of two Microsoft Word documents – one contains the main piece of writing I’m working on, be it a novel or short story or anything else, and the other contains all other notes, missives, reminders and miscellany related to the project. When I finish whatever I’m working on, I go back to the notes document and make sure that everything I put in these has been addressed. As for hardware, I’ve been using the same keyboard, mouse and desk for the last ten years. I replace my computer only when the hard drive or some other vital component breaks down.

Do you listen to music when you write, or do you prefer silence, or something else in the background?

I tend to listen to music when I start writing – usually something I’ve listened to a million times before, so I can sort of hear it without exerting any conscious effort. As I progress, I’ll eventually fade the music out until I’m writing in silence.

You’ve written both fiction and nonfiction. Do you have different mental frameworks for writing each? Did the mechanics of your writing routines change too?

The two forms make different mental demands. Non-fiction presents itself to me as a kind of jigsaw puzzle – the challenge is to arrange the information in a way that conforms to a certain image or conclusion. Fiction is more akin to something like pottery – the clay, the initial form, is always the same, in the sense that it can be molded into anything. I tend to begin both projects the same way, focusing almost exclusively on research, and then building a narrative path that allows me to tell the story I want to tell. But when I’m writing fiction, I’m much more concerned with the emotional resonance of the story.

How much of a day for you is spent in research versus writing, or are you doing both at the same time?

I research first, then write. I spent a year doing research before I wrote a word of American War, and I did the same with the project I’m currently pursuing. Inevitably, during the writing process, I’ll discover gaps that need to be filled, and I’ll go back to research. But all things being equal, I like to go to the writing room as heavily armed as possible.

Many say that the first step to being a good writer is to read good writers’ writing, and then try flattery by way of imitation. Is there an author (or authors) you’re trying to emulate when you write?

There are many authors who changed not only my writing, but my life – among them Toni Morrison, James Agee and Naguib Mahfouz. But it is precisely because they have had such a profound impact on me that I try never to emulate them. Hemingway once said that writing would be very easy if all that was required was to write well what someone else has already written well. I tend to agree. There’s no doubt in my mind that imitation has worked its way subconsciously into much of my writing, but it’s not something I actively try to do.

What are your favorite books on writing if you have any?

None of the books that have influenced my thought process on writing have been books about writing, per se. There are a few books on writing I’ve enjoyed, but I’m rarely able to make use of the advice they have to offer. I loved Stephen King’s “On Writing,” for example, but I mostly enjoyed it as a memoir, rather than an instruction manual.

How do you think about the audience you’re writing for? Is there one in your head, or are you basically writing for yourself?

For the most part, I write for myself. Occasionally I’ll venture into a particular section of the story that will remind me of someone, and they will temporarily become my intended audience. But for the most part, I have no intended reader in mind when I write.

Others have pointed out that your experiences as a reporter seem to have influenced American War without turning it into “thinly disguised epistle on conflict in the Middle East.” Do you have any plans for a second book, and if so, do you see your experiences in journalism and in life influencing it in similar ways?

I’m currently working on what I hope will be my next novel. Certainly, my training as a journalist comes into play whenever I work on any project, fiction or non-fiction, but it’s primarily in the form of prep work. I research like a journalist, but when it comes to the telling of the story, I leave journalism behind.